


SEVENTEEN

by EtchJetty



Series: SEVENTEEN [1]
Category: Parahumans Series - Wildbow, Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-19
Updated: 2019-09-29
Packaged: 2020-11-23 03:22:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 7,821
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20885303
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EtchJetty/pseuds/EtchJetty
Summary: A Worm/Undertale fusion, where, after an alternate Gold Morning, Missy Biron meets a grey version of Taylor Hebert - a girl who Missy doesn't remember.This fic has an attached ARG - see other works in this series.





	1. Taylor

Missy Biron, known to the public as the space-warping superheroine Vista, freakin’ _loved_ being seventeen.  
  
It was 2015, and things were looking up. She was the leader of the Wards ENE. Most of her friends from what she called “the Undersiders era” in her head were gone, in different cities and the like.  
  
But it was fine. She loved her Wards. Sprite was adorable (and she made sure that she was OK with being called adorable), Bluejay was a fun person to be around (and fly around!), Imp and her Heartbroken had joined the Wards last year (and wasn’t _that_ a surprise!), and people respected Missy’s authority.  
  
People! Respecting Missy’s authority!  
  
Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!  
  
Putting that (totally awesome fact) aside, crime had been down since the Good Morning. Two years ago, a strike team heavily featuring the Chicago Wards, the Undersiders, and the Dragon’s Teeth had tried to kill Jack Slash and stop Dinah Alcott’s prediction of the end of the world. Nobody was exactly sure what happened after they left, as the next thing anyone remembered worldwide was waking up in their beds at exactly 7:00 AM local time one week later.  
  
It was a Thursday. And it was _weeeeiiird_.  
  
Anyways, people just chalked it up to _dem derned parryhoomans again_ and went on with their lives. Dinah Alcott had confirmed that the end of the world had been successfully averted, whatever it was, so that worry was gone. It got recorded as a PRT Case file, PHO went nuts, yadda yadda yadda. Life went on, for the most part. Some people, like Clockblocker and Kid Win, had reported intense feelings of loss as they woke up, but nobody really knew what to do about it. Besides, the feeling slowly disappeared over time, and it’d been years, so people just stopped worrying about the Good Morning. Or GM, for short.  
  
In this Post-GM world, Vista had been doing pretty well for herself. So it was this good mood that brought an uncostumed Missy Biron to the Boat Graveyard on a rainy day. She hadn’t really been looking where she was going, just sort of walking along the coast. Although being in the Boat Graveyard did give her an opportunity she had wanted for some time. Ever since all the vagrants were forced out by some, ahem, _persuasion_ provided by the one of the Heartbroken, the entire area had become essentially a giant playground for her.  
  
“Try and Manton-limit this,” she muttered, flexing her power over the boats. Slowly, the old fishing vessel she was next to began to fold in on itself. Flatter and flatter, thinner and thinner. This was going to work! Missy strained her power, telling it _no, there’s nobody in there, promise_, as she made her best efforts to slowly sculpt the wreck into a statue of Armsmaster.  
  
Because the best miracle of the Post-GM world is that Defiant had gained a sense of humor.  
  
With a relieved sigh, Missy let go of her power. Where there was once a 12,000 pound gigantic fishing vessel, there now was a 12,000 pound slightly-larger-than-life Armsmaster statue. She was really proud of the words “Approximate weight of Armsy’s Ego” that she had managed to etch into the plaque at the bottom.  
  
God-damn, she was good.  
  
Hopefully, no-one would notice this specific missing boat among the dozens of wrecks. She’d leave the statue where it was and send Dragon its’ coordinates. Dragon’ll know what to do with it. Maybe as a birthday gift?  
  
She had begun to leave, popping open her umbrella, when she noticed someone on the beach, staring at a boat. The girl was short. Shorter than Missy, for sure. She had long, black curls going down past her shoulders. Her clothes were all grey or black, and she was wearing white boots. She was getting absolutely soaked in the rain.  
  
“Hey!” shouted Missy. “Do you know where your parents are?”  
  
The girl didn’t respond. Missy made her way closer, even as she started to get a bad premonition. She subtly warped space below her feet, making her slow pace seem more like a light jog to anyone watching. When she got closer to the girl, Missy tried again.  
  
“What’s your name?” she asked, with as much sweetness as she could put into her voice. When the girl didn’t respond, leaving Missy only staring at the shivering girl’s damp black curls, she tried one more time. “Are you okay?” she asked the girl.  
  
The girl froze momentarily, then went back to shivering, staring at the wrecks. Missy was running out of ideas. “If you want me to call someone for you, I can—”  
  
“Have you ever thought about a world where everything is exactly the same...”  
  
Missy startled. The voice that came out of the little girl _sounded_ like an eight year old, sure, but the tone wasn’t. This girl sounded... haunted. The girl turned around.  
  
If Missy thought she had been frightened by the girl’s voice, it didn’t hold a candle to the girl’s appearance. In the past, Missy had seen some of the footage and images of Gray Boy victims. It was a morbid curiosity that brought her to look at the family that was trapped on the ferris wheel, or the girl forever stuck in that mall. Missy never could watch the videos for more than a second or two. It was far too disturbing. The victim’s haunted, tortured look, their grayscale appearance...  
  
This girl was grey as well. Utterly and completely grey. Her wide mouth was framed by black curls, yes, but the lips were grey. Her skin was grey. Her clothes were various shades of grey. Her glasses were gray as well, but they framed blank, pupil-less eyes. Totally empty.  
  
And her left arm was a (gray) bloody stump.  
  
Missy gulped.  
  
“Except you don't exist?” finished the girl.  
  
The girl then looked around her at the Boat Graveyard, then in the general direction of where the New Boardwalk was. “Everything functions perfectly without you...” she said, wistfully.  
  
She turned to Missy and made eye contact. Her blank eyes were wide. “The thought terrifies me,” she smiled. It wasn’t a very nice smile. The girl looked like she was out of practice.  
  
Every one of Missy’s instincts were screaming at her to _holy shit get out NOW_. But she found she couldn’t move. Not out of paralysis, but out of curiosity. What... What happened to this girl?  
  
Slowly, Missy crouched down to one knee in order to be at eye height with the girl. Guided by some instinct she didn’t know she had, she stuck out her left hand, palm up facing the girl. The girl, mirroring her, held up her left palm.  
  
They touched, and Missy suddenly understood what it was like to be a building affected by her power as the world _twisted—_  
  
_—and she was there, with Emma. The two girls were running around back and forth near the dock, and Danny and Alan were chatting, watching them play._  
  
_“You sure it’s safe to be here, Dan?” asked Alan. “They don’t call this the Boat Graveyard for nothing.”_  
  
_Danny chuckled. “Listen. I’m probably not going to tell you this, but we’ve got a contract coming up. Someone from out of town is going to come in and clear the graveyard.”_  
  
_Alan gaped. “Dan, my man! Are you telling me...”_  
  
_Danny nodded, and grinned. “Absolutely. We’ve cleared it with the PRT and everything. Hero’s going to be here in October, testing something he’s calling the Anomalous Infrascanner. Even if it doesn’t work, one way or another, this graveyard will be gone.”_  
  
_Alan slapped Danny on the back. “Absolutely incredible. That’s just beyond words.”_  
  
_Danny sheepishly scratched the back of his head. “Well, it was really mostly Annette calling in a favor. And after all_—_”_  
  
_Suddenly, Emma came running up to Alan. “Daddy! Taylor’s hurt!”_  
  
_“What?”_  
  
_They went as fast as they could to Taylor, Emma leading the way, but something was wrong. This wasn’t how it went. Taylor’s arm wasn’t missing, and she wasn’t... Oh god, her skull, oh god oh god oh god oh_—  
  
And they were back. The little girl’s eyes widened.  
  
“You saw that,” she said, barely a whisper. “You know who I was.”  
  
Missy tried to form the words. “Tay—”  
  
“Please forget about me,” said the little girl, who didn’t look so little anymore. Hero would have died in a month from when that memory happened, so that would have made her five, but now she looked more Missy’s age.  
  
Missy opened her mouth, but Taylor interrupted. “Please don’t think about me anymore.”  
  
And Missy blinked, and Taylor was gone.


	2. Frisk

When Missy returned to the Wards HQ, she was unhappy to discover that basically nobody was there.  
  
She tried to think back. Where was everyone? Sprite was taking her day off, Imp was on patrol with Bluejay, the Heartbroken kids were in remedial schooling...  
  
Toggle, though. She was on console. Vista approached her.  
  
As she neared the girl, the colored sections on Toggle’s costume briefly lit up, and Toggle turned to face her. “Hey, Vista!” Toggle said, with a smile. “Welcome back. How was your walk?”  
  
Vista was stone-faced. “Mute the microphone for a second, Toggle,” she said. “I need to... I don’t know. Debrief?”  
  
Toggle turned off the mic before saying, “That bad? Missy, what happened? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”  
  
“I think I did.”  
  
“Oh.” Toggle swiveled her chair to face Missy fully. “Okay, don’t leave anything out. What happened?”  
  
As Missy recounted what happened on the beach, Toggle’s expression became more and more serious. When she mentioned travelling into Taylor’s memory, Toggle’s eyes widened slightly in surprise, but she said nothing in response. After Missy was finally done, she asked the other girl, “What do you think happened?”  
  
“I think I need to make a phone call,” said Toggle.  
  
“What?” Missy asked, but Toggle held up a finger as she fished her cell phone from her pocket and dialed a number.  
  
The phone rang twice before it was picked up. “Hey, Undyne, it’s Frisk. I’m going to need a favor from you.”  
  
Undyne. Missy knew that name. Everyone did. The Bostonian Case 53 heroine was one of the strongest in the country. Her power to project and control spears made most villainous capes fear her, and every gang member run in fear. Yet she was apparently good enough with kids to run the Boston Wards team. Missy was vaguely aware that Toggle was friends with Undyne. But why was she calling the fearsome hero now?  
  
“Uh huh,” said Toggle. “Yeah, no, I get it. You haven’t even heard what I’m going to say yet.”  
  
Missy tried not to eavesdrop. She certainly didn’t subtly twist space around so that the sound from Toggle’s phone would potentially reach her ear. That would have been unethical.  
  
And also it was WAY too difficult.  
  
Toggle groaned. “Can you just listen? It’s about the old Royal Scientist.”  
  
A beat.  
  
“Not Alphys. That’s why I said _old_ Royal Scientist.”  
  
Another break.  
  
“You don’t remember— Undyne, weren’t you captain of the royal guard?”  
  
Vista could vaguely make out angry fish-woman noises from the other side of the phone.  
  
“That is not an excuse! I make an effort to know the names of everyone at the PRT— You stopped listening. Okay. Look, the fate of the world’s at stake, Undyne, and I need you to come to Brockton.”  
  
There was a beat of silence on both sides. Then something from Undyne that Vista didn’t understand.  
  
“Okay. Fine. Consider this the debt paid, but it doesn’t really matter if we don’t fix whatever the hell is going on. And I can’t believe you’re still hung up about the broom closet incident!” said Toggle, blushing a little. “I forgave you for that, like, years ago!”  
  
Missy wasn’t going to push it. As Toggle hung up, Missy asked, “You’re getting Undyne to come here? What for?”  
  
“Because she’s one of the only people who might have dealt with what we’re about to deal with before.” Toggle started typing something out on her phone.  
  
Missy shook her head. “I’m sorry, I’m confused. I feel like you’re leaving something out.”  
  
“Well,” said Toggle, tapping definitively on her phone then looking up, “you can find out after you get out of Master/Stranger confinement.”  
  
And as if on cue, an alarm started blaring. God _damnit._ Toggle had used the text alarm for M/S The next 24 to 48 hours were going to _suck._ And was Toggle laughing?!  
  
“Stop giggling!” said Vista. “As your commander, I command you—”  
  
And then she got foamed, and everything went dark.  
  
\---  
  
Hours later, after Missy had been defoamed and fed, she was sitting in her cell, trying to resist the urge to use her powers, when her mind wandered back to the encounter at the Boat Graveyard.  
  
_Taylor. _That girl— That woman, Vista remembered. They had met before. They had worked together against the Slaughterhouse 9. Vista had tried to stop her from robbing a bank.  
  
They had known each other. Taylor knew Vista and Vista knew Skitter, Weaver.  
  
But now nobody knew Taylor. It was like she had said. They were now in a world where everything is exactly the same... except she didn’t exist.  
  
“And I don’t exist, either,” said Jack Slash. Vista screamed.  
  
“Ah bup bup,” said Jack. “If you keep screaming, they’ll keep you here for longer. You know lots of Masters have hallucinations that appear afterwards.”  
  
Vista, catching her breath, looked up at Jack. He looked like how she remembered him (_but she didn’t remember him, not until he was literally in front of her face_), his goatee trimmed to perfection. The only major difference was the fact that his skin was entirely grey. Hell, everything was grey. And his eyes were totally blank.  
  
Vista had a feeling that yesterday’s chance encounter had something to do with what she was seeing now.  
  
Jack grinned. “Now you’re getting it. We’re linked, us goners. Me, her, him, it, them, and of course, the scientist.”  
  
Vista didn’t try to dissect that. She tried not to look at Jack Slash’s weird monochrome ghost at all, actually, because if she was seen talking to air it probably wouldn’t help her “I haven’t been mastered” case at all.  
  
“Oh, you don’t have to worry about that,” said Jack. “The cameras are looped. We can chat as much as we like.”  
  
“Fuck you,” spat Vista.  
  
Jack grinned, and said, “Let me tell you a story, little girl. One time, a man was so engrossed in his research that he fell into it and got scattered across reality. Sound fun? Well, as someone who was recently scattered across reality himself, it isn’t. It really isn’t fun. Really really isn’t. Fun, that is.”  
  
Finally, Vista couldn’t help herself. “If you were... scattered across reality...” she began, “how did you come back?”  
  
“Let’s just say that Theo Anders isn’t the only one who can speak in hands,” said Jack.  
  
_Theo Anders. _Golem. Vista had forgotten him, too. God, how many were there? Jack mentioned himself, “her,” presumably Weaver, “him,” Golem, “it...”  
  
“Who was the it you mentioned?” she asked.  
  
“Have you ever given thought to a world where God is dead?” he responded immediately, completely ignoring her question.  
  
“What?”  
  
Stroking his goatee, seemingly lost in thought, he continued. "What about a world where God isn't just dead, but forgotten?"  
  
"I’m... not following?"  
  
Jack kept talking, but this time addressed her directly, saying, "Have you ever wondered where powers come from, Vista?"  
  
Vista shrugged. Sure, she had wondered every now and again, but that was for the scientists to worry about...  
  
"I know where powers come from," said the grey man, grinning.  
  
Vista's green eyes locked onto his blank ones. "What? Wh—how? Why? Tell me!"  
  
"Sure," he said. "They come from Scion, the Golden Man."  
  
"...Who?"  
  
“And that’d be your it.”  
  
Vista opened her mouth. Then she closed it again. Then she freaked out because _how in the fucking fuck did she forget the existence of Scion what the hell was wrong with her_ and then she realized that she hadn’t discussed, heard of, or seen any reference to Scion since the Good Morning.  
  
Something was very, very wrong.  
  
“You finally understand, don’t you. Me, her, him, it, them, and the scientist. You haven’t met them or the scientist, but your friend up in the Wards HQ has. Ask her about them. I’m sure it’ll be an... _illuminating _conversation.”  
  
There was a knock on the door. Vista quickly glanced at it out of instinct, then glanced back.  
  
Jack Slash was gone.  
  
The door opened.  
  
“You’re clear,” said the PRT trooper who opened the door. “Watchdog says you’re not being mastered.”  
  
“I’m not?” If she wasn’t being mastered, if all these memories of people who aren’t around anymore are real, if _Jack Slash _really just showed up in her cell...  
  
“Zeroes all around, Vista, you’re clear for duty. And you should get back to Wards HQ ASAP, because we’ve got a visitor.” Even through the face-obscuring mask, Vista could tell he was excited, as he said, “Undyne from the Boston Protectorate is here!”


	3. Undyne

Undyne was already being shown around the Wards HQ by an overwhelmed Bluejay when Vista and her escort arrived.  
  
“And, so, uh, this is the console, uhm,” Bluejay stuttered. “It’s where we, uh, do all the, y’know. Mission reports.”  
  
“I know what the console does,” said Undyne, gently. Bluejay’s cheeks filled with red, but he continued.  
  
“Oh, o-of course you know what the console does, Undyne,” he stammered. “Yeah, h-how could I forget that you... run the... Boston Wards team.” If Bluejay’s face hadn’t been red in its entirety before, it was now. Vista ran (and warped space slightly) to greet the visitor, as well as save her Ward.  
  
“Undyne!” she said, as she landed. “I’m Vista, leader of the Wards ENE, and I’d like to say, first of all, thank you so much for coming to visit. I know Toggle was—”  
  
“Where is Toggle, by the way?” asked Undyne, her single yellow eye scanning the room.  
  
“In the bathroom, I think?” answered Bluejay.  
  
There was a flushing noise. The door to the private Wards bathroom opened, and Toggle (well, she was unmasked, so she was Frisk now) stepped out.  
  
Frisk stared at Undyne, Bluejay, and Vista.  
  
The trio stared back.  
  
Then Frisk ran and gave Undyne a hug. “Undyne! I’m so happy you made it!” she exclaimed. Undyne smiled and gently stroked Frisk’s hair.  
  
“I’m happy I made it too,” she said. “Now, what was this about the end of the world?”  
  
Frisk broke out of the hug and waved Vista over.  
  
“I don’t think Bluejay should be involved in this,” she said. “Trust me. It’s better the fewer people who get roped in.”  
  
"Toggle," said Vista. "Are you telling me that you didn't report to any of the higher ups the exact details of my... Let's call it a vision?"  
  
"No," said Frisk. "Trust me. It's not needed. Seriously. I'm all about teamwork, but this is not something that the Wards should be involved in, except you, obviously, since you're already involved."  
  
"And you?" asked Vista, incredulous. "You don't count as a Ward anymore?"  
  
"Right now I count as an independent concerned party," said Toggle. "It's a part of my contract. Since I'm legally in a grey area, being not really a citizen of this Earth, they had to put in a lot of concessions. And one concession was that anything related to my world was in my purview independently."  
  
Vista was vaguely aware that Toggle was technically a Case 53. Frisk's power had mutated her heart, making it visibly manifest near her chest whenever she was in battle, but it didn't come up very often, except for when cultural differences had arisen in the past (_"That doesn’t exist, does it?" Toggle asked. "Case fifty-three porn?"_) but they were far and few between.  
  
Frisk had never really opened up about her past. Vista never really pried. As the former baby of the team herself, she knew what it was like to be wheedled by constant worry and sympathy from older teammates, so Vista tried to keep personal questions to a minimum.  
  
And yet, here Frisk was, opening up about her old Earth. The questions Vista had thought were off limits now sprung forward, burning in her mind. Frisk evidently could see the curiosity in her eyes, because she said, "Undyne, Vista, we'll debrief in Conference Room 5."  
  
And as Frisk went out the door, Undyne following along, all Vista could wonder was: _When did she become in charge? And why is she so _good _at it?_  
  
\---  
  
The group settled into Conference Room 5.  
  
Conference Room 5 was much like the other conference rooms in the PRT HQ. It had a round table with 8 or so swivel chairs, a closed-circuit television that could be hooked up to any number of inputs, and, of course, state of the art privacy technology. Vista enabled the soundproofing as they all took their seats.  
  
“Alright, let’s go over the details,” said Vista. She glanced at Frisk. Toggle didn’t seem like she was about to say anything, so Vista went on. “I ran into an unknown grey figure, who pulled me into a vision. Toggle made the right call,” and at this, Frisk seemed to relax, “and put me in Master/Stranger confinement, where...”  
  
Vista’s eyes swept across the room, but after having seen no-one save Frisk and Undyne, she continued.  
  
“...I saw Jack Slash in the cell. He just appeared, and he told me about people who we should _know, _yet who are missing.”  
  
Undyne’s eye widened. Frisk glanced between Undyne and Vista, keeping silent, but her face was grim.  
  
“Jack Slash...” muttered Undyne. “Damn. I had totally forgotten about that bastard until you said his name. No wonder the Slaughterhouse went basically silent.”  
  
“Yeah,” said Vista. “It was Jack, Taylor Hebert,” — across the table, Toggle gasped — “Theo Anders, and... Scion. Also, a ‘them’ and someone Jack called ‘the scientist.’”  
  
Both Undyne and Frisk stared at Vista.  
  
“We... We forgot Scion!” wailed Frisk. “That’s... That’s like forgetting ASGORE, or Gerson!”  
  
“Who?” asked Undyne.  
  
Frisk’s look of absolute horror last for only a second before Undyne started cackling. Frisk crossed her arms. “That isn’t funny! I was really scared for a second!” she pouted.  
  
“Aw, come on, kiddo. If there’s anything I learned from being on Earth Bet for... what, is it eight years, now?” Undyne stared into the air for a second, then nodded. “Eight. It’s that even when things look like they’re at their worst, when hope looks like it’s about to disappear, you have to keep smiling, and make sure other people are smiling, too.”  
  
“...In hindsight,” said Frisk, “A lot of things about Sans make more sense when you apply that philosophy.”  
  
There was a moment of silence.  
  
Then, from Frisk: “Undyne, I asked you on the phone about the old royal scientist. Do you really not remember him at all?”  
  
“No, kid, I’m sorry,” said Undyne. “It’s been eight years since I was in the Underground. I try to keep my memories of my friends as sharp as possible, and I don’t really remember interacting with whoever was before Alphys.”  
  
Vista frowned. “Can you guys please, uh, let the newbie in on what this ‘Underground’ you’re talking about is? Because I feel like knowing what that is would be pretty important.”  
  
“Oh!” said Frisk. “Yeah, of course. Undyne and I, if you didn’t know before, came from the same world. A different Earth. I won’t get too deep into it, but there was a war between humans and monsters, magic is real on our home world, Undyne is a monster,” (Vista glanced at Undyne, but she didn’t seem to take offense to the term,) “all the monsters were trapped Underground, there was a magic barrier trapping them there, and that was basically the source of everyone’s problems.  
  
“Monsters weren’t nearly as strong, naturally, as humans when it came to magic. So they had to try and figure out how to break the barrier a different way. One way was to use the combined power of a few human SOULs as an energy source.”  
  
At this Vista noticed the lights on Toggle’s costume briefly swirl and flash.  
  
“Some people objected to that,” said Frisk.  
  
“I didn’t,” said Undyne. “And I helped them gather the SOULs.”  
  
The lights on Toggle’s costume became more agitated.  
  
“But I regret it,” said Undyne. “And the humans forgave me.”  
  
Toggle’s costume began to settle out, the swimming of the colors slowing down. She continued. “And there’s a few people, like Doctor Gaster, that tried to break the barrier through sheer force energy alone. He built the CORE, a source of energy so powerful that it might have been able to work, had he not...” Toggle cleared her throat. “...fallen into his creation, as they say. And I think ‘they’ are the same ‘they’” as the people who still follow Gaster to this day.”  
  
Vista motioned for Toggle to continue. “I only ran into them once each. They told me about Doctor Gaster. And then they disappeared. Even other people who were in the room at the time didn’t remember that anyone else was there. Vista, I think Taylor Hebert became one of Gaster’s followers. Did she talk about disappearing? Worlds where you don’t exist?”  
  
“Yes,” said Vista.  
  
“That basically confirms it, then,” said Undyne. “Something happened to Weaver, Golem, Scion, Jack. And we have to figure out what to do about it.”  
  
“I can—” said a voice, which quickly cut itself off. Undyne got out of her chair and summoned a spear. Deadly, blue, and glowing, it hovered in the air.  
  
"Whoever is there," said Undyne, "Come out if you want to live."  
  
The air rippled, revealing a peculiar sight. Further into the conference room, perched awkwardly under what Vista recognized as his prototype “invisibility sphere,” was Bluejay.  
  
“Uh, hi,” he said, trying to smile. “Can, um. Can I help in some way?”


	4. Chara

Bluejay, huddled under his invisibility sphere, smiled weakly at the assembled heroines.  
  
“H-hi, Undyne,” he said. “Toggle. V-Vista. What’s going on?”  
  
“What’s going on, punk, is that I’m one step away from putting this spear through you. Do you know how many PRT restrictions you just violated?” growled Undyne, stepping towards Bluejay.  
  
“I mean, I, uh—”  
  
Vista stepped forward. “Bluejay, it’s very admirable that you wanted to help us,” she said gently. “But this is a very sensitive matter, and like Toggle said, it’s best if it gets to as few people as possible, okay? So can I ask you to step outside?”  
  
“Don’t,” said Toggle.  
  
Vista looked back. Toggle stood, a few of her summoned ghosts floating behind her. “Don’t make him leave, Vista. He’s already heard enough, and it’s probably better if we have him than if we don’t.”  
  
“Th-thanks, Toggle,” he said. Bluejay took a deep breath. “I... I found something this morning. When I was on my patrol route, there was this... hole, like this really dark hole, but just in mid-air. And then someone threw a robot out of it.”  
  
“And you didn’t think to report any of this?” asked Undyne, incredulous.  
  
“Well, I was going to!” said Bluejay. “But I, uh, started looking at how it was built, and it was really, really interesting; did you know that? It was like nothing I’ve ever seen, and it had this hole in the middle that was heart-shaped, and a gun arm, and a face, but the whole thing was totally wrecked, and, uh, I’m rambling. Here’s a picture.”  
  
Toggle gasped. “That’s Mettaton NEO...” she said. “What’s left of him. How did that get to Earth Bet?”  
  
Something in the atmosphere of the room shifted. A high-pitched warbling noise filled the air, emanating from the TV on the other side of the room. The screen was black, but words slowly began to display on it.  
  
_Sometimes things fall through the cracks in reality. I would know._  
  
Vista’s hair began to stand on end. Undyne rotated her spear to face the TV. “What the hell is going on?” she asked.  
  
The screen went blank, and new words appeared, just as slowly as before.  
  
_Oh. You don’t remember me?_  
  
And suddenly, on the screen, was a pixelated image of a little kid with rosy red cheeks and a striped shirt.  
  
Vista glanced at Toggle, whose face had turned white. Undyne seemed to be shaking with rage, gripping her spear so tightly it began to shatter around where her fingers had gripped it.  
  
_That’s right_, said the TV. _It’s me._  
  
_Chara._  
  
“What do you want!” shouted Frisk. “It wasn’t enough for you to try and destroy the whole of my world, now you want to destroy this one, too?”  
  
_Precisely._  
  
“Oh,” said Vista. “So this was the end of the world thing you mentioned on the phone to Undyne.”  
  
“I didn’t know it would be Chara!” exclaimed Frisk. “I thought it was going to be Gaster or his followers! What does Chara have to do with—”  
  
_Everything._  
  
_I have everything to do with it._  
  
_Do you know what it’s like to be forgotten? _he asked. _After I died the first time, nobody alive still knew my name._  
  
_I was just THE HUMAN or THE CHILD. Don’t you know how FRUSTRATING that all is? My name is Chara. Or, as it has been for the past few years, Gray Boy._  
  
There was a moment of silence while everyone took that in.  
  
Vista said, “So at the end of the raid against Jack, when Weaver, Scion, and Golem were all there, you...”  
  
_Erased them. Irrevocably. Their very nonexistence is tied to my continued existence. Their SOULs fuel me._  
  
_And someone like Jack Slash has a lot of LOVE to go around._  
  
Bluejay suddenly stood up. "You're not going to get away with this! We're going to fight you!"  
  
"We will?" muttered Undyne.  
  
"Yeah!" said Toggle. "We will!"  
  
_How interesting, _said the screen. _Fine. I accept your challenge. Meet me at the boat graveyard, tomorrow morning. And we will decide this world's fate._  
  
"You're on!" shouted Bluejay.  
  
The screen turned black, and Chara disappeared. Not a moment later, Undyne hurled her spear through the TV, shattering it through.  
  
“Alright,” said Undyne. “That was the stupidest thing I’ve seen. Bluejay, what the hell are you thinking! I’ve fought that kid before, and that was before it had Gray Boy’s powers!”  
  
“It?” asked Vista.  
  
“Well, he, I guess,” said Undyne. “Since, y’know. Gray _Boy._”  
  
“Sure,” said Toggle. “We’re going to have to fight him, you know. I think Bluejay made the right choice, but I just wish we were on our playing field.”  
  
“Yeah...” muttered Undyne. “Well, I was on my playing field fighting Chara the first time. I almost melted from sheer Determination alone.”  
  
“That’s a thing?!” asked Vista.  
  
Undyne nodded solemnly. “If it wasn’t for Cauldron injecting me with 100% pure balance formula, I would have died. Thankfully, I have a real body now, because of it.”  
  
Vista decided not to press further. “Well, we have to meet Gray Boy, er, Chara, tomorrow morning. Frisk, are you sure we can’t let more people in on this? Having someone like Imp on our side could be really useful!”  
  
“Or it could doom them to an eternal looping prison,” said Toggle. “Trust me. I’ve done time looping before; it’s not all it’s cracked up to be. We have to end this, just the four of us.”  
  
“Just the four of us,” repeated Vista.  
  
“Just the four of us,” said Bluejay.  
  
“I think this is wholly irresponsible,” said Undyne. “But then again I burned my house down cooking pasta in an alternate timeline, so my opinion’s invalid.”  
  
“Okay, so we’re doing this,” said Vista. “Bluejay, what were you saying before, about the robot—”  
  
“Before we do anything,” said Toggle, “I need to make one thing clear. If everything goes wrong tomorrow, I have one out that will end the problem permanently.”  
  
“What? Why haven’t you told me this before?” asked Vista.  
  
“Because it’s extremely risky. And even if it wasn’t, it definitely means that people will die, even if it means less people would die than if Chara had his way with this world,” said Toggle. “I have this power, to reset everything. I can go all the way back to before I came to Earth Bet. It would mean Chara would never have left the Underground. But it also would have meant that Undyne and I wouldn’t be here. We wouldn’t become friends, Vista.”  
  
“Can’t you come back the same way you came the first time?” asked Bluejay.  
  
“No,” said Frisk, shaking her head. “It’s always been a one-time thing. I can’t rewind time to the Underground and come back here. If I perform a True Reset, it can’t be undone. At all.”  
  
“Really,” said Undyne. “Have you done a True Reset before, Frisk?”  
  
“Once,” said Toggle, but the guilty expression on her face spoke volumes.  
  
“Okay, everyone,” said Vista. “Tomorrow morning we gather at the Boat Graveyard. Bluejay, use that robot shell to build a weapon we can try and use. Undyne, Frisk, we’ll keep talking, strategize what we can do, and what we think Gray Boy will try and do.”  
  
Vista looked around the room and took a deep breath.  
  
“And if we fail, it might mean the end of everything we know and love. Good luck.”


	5. END - PART 1

It was a fitful night's sleep at the Wards HQ, but they all gathered the next morning at the Boat Graveyard. Frisk was in full costume as Toggle, six ghosts trailing behind her, staff at the ready. Undyne was in full armor, blue spear in hand. Vista was fully in costume, unlike the last time she had been to the Graveyard, and Bluejay was awkwardly wielding whatever he had managed to come up with from the remains of Mettaton NEO.  
  
It was all they could work with. Toggle had sworn that the outcome could only be worse if any more than the four of them met Chara, and Vista believed her. (Though she did secretly ask Undyne if it was the only way. The older woman nodded solemnly.)  
  
"Chara!" shouted Frisk.  
  
But nobody came.  
  
Instead, Vista could feel a small disturbance of space appear, right around where she had met Taylor just the day before.  
  
"Guys," said Vista. "I'm going to try something."  
  
Vista took a breath and cleared her mind. Then she used her power to prod the disturbance.  
  
"Holy shit!" shouted Undyne. "Vista, what the hell are you doing!" Where there was once an invisible disturbance that only Vista could see, cracks began to form. It was as if someone had fired a bullet through the glass windshield of reality itself.  
  
The view of the graveyard collapsed away from in front of them, leaving only a dark expanse.  
  
"God, I hate Shakers," said Undyne. Then, glancing at Vista: "I mean, not all Shakers. But—"  
  
"I get the picture," said Vista.  
  
Toggle frowned. "It's dark in there. Really, really dark."  
  
Bluejay, ever the helpful one, pulled out a scanner. "Photons reading negative from the general area of the... area," he said. "Should we go through?"  
  
"I don't think we have a choice," said Toggle, and she stepped through, the ghosts of the six fallen humans trailing behind her.  
  
Undyne followed silently. Vista gestured for Bluejay to follow.  
  
The four of them walked through the darkness. It felt like walking nowhere and on nothing, yet they could feel the ground beneath their feet. There just weren't any footsteps.  
  
"I don't like this," said Undyne. "I wish we had a choice to fight on our turf. Right now I'm just wondering why Gray Boy didn't kill everyone right as Good Morning happened if he's been Chara the whole time."  
  
"Do you think Good Morning only happened because of Chara?" whispered Bluejay.  
  
"Why would you think that?" asked Toggle.  
  
"Because, uh—" began Bluejay.  
  
"Because Gray Boy was there. At the end. Right before we all went to sleep, we were fighting Gray Boy," said Vista. "But he somehow got Jack, froze him in a time bubble. And then he... God, I can barely remember. He did _something _to the bubble, and it exploded outward, and I think Weaver and Golem were caught in the blast. And Scion."  
  
"And Chara's been using their souls as, like, a battery for his continued existence this whole time?" asked Bluejay.  
  
“Seems like it,” said Undyne.  
  
Frisk stopped walking and sighed. “I agree, Undyne, that it’s weird Chara waited so long,” she said. “But I’ve walked into traps like this before, and I’ve always come out on top.”  
  
“Kid, you used to be able to rewind time,” said Undyne.  
  
“...True,” admitted Frisk.  
  
A sharp piano note, and a subtle shake of reality. “I think that all of you are right in a lot of ways,” said Chara, who was there and always had been.  
  
Bluejay screamed. Frisk readied her staff, her ghosts glowing brighter. Undyne growled, summoning her spear. Vista readied her baton.  
  
Chara's red eyes glowed in the darkness. “It doesn’t make sense that I waited so long, does it? After all, I took Taylor Hebert, Jack Slash, Scion from existence. Why couldn’t I do the same to you?” he said.  
  
Then he smiled slightly. It was the same slight smile that Frisk had seen in the mirror in New Home, that time she had allowed things to go too far.  
  
“You see,” said Chara, “it’s because we all have a common enemy. And that common enemy has been pulling the strings this whole time. It isn’t that dog, although I once thought it was. No, it’s the one on the keyboard. The one holding the controller. The one whose name is at the top left corner of this post. The ones whose names are at the bottom.”  
  
“It is they who have brought ruin unto the underground, brought plagues upon Earth Bet. It is their insatiable curiosity. It is their perverted sentimentality.”  
  
“It is their desire to see the same things repeated, time and time and time again, but with a tweak, this time. Perhaps the girl doesn’t get stuffed in the locker. Perhaps a different child falls into the Underground. Perhaps she dies to Leviathan. Perhaps Toriel doesn’t befriend him. All of it. All of it’s real, and all of it disgusts me.”  
  
“What the hell are you talking about?” muttered Undyne.  
  
“I’m talking about hell,” said Chara, his red eyes meeting her one yellow one. “The living hell we all inhabit. This looping, unending pain of existence, until it suddenly, abruptly becomes nonexistent. Time might flow differently between worlds, but infinity is still infinity. And something that ceases forever ceases forever.”  
  
Chara looked around at the listening crowd. No-one so much as twitched.  
  
“This time, I was created for a purpose,” Chara continued. "And that purpose was to be scary and frightening and the big monster at the end of this infinite tunnel. I could have easily been someone else. I could have been your best friend,” he said, gesturing to Frisk, “or your worst nightmare. Today, I’m your nightmare. Tomorrow, we might both be luckier.”  
  
Bluejay readied his weapon. Chara cocked his head.  
  
“I’m curious as to what that actually does,” said Chara. “You see, I was meant to destroy this world, and I’ve known that since before I came here. Call me crazy, but I want to know if you even had a chance to begin with.”  
  
“This is ridiculous,” said Vista. “Bluejay, as your commanding officer, I’m going to allow you to take the shot.”  
  
“Go ahead, Bluejay," said Chara, showing his teeth, “Take the shot.”  
  
Bluejay straightened his spine, muttered the words “Here goes nothing,” and pulled the trigger, the brightly colored beam bursting out from the end of the weapon—

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter has two endings. The second ending was unlocked by the successful completion of the ARG.


	6. AN END

—not straying from its course, driving straight through Chara’s chest, disintegrating a majority of his body mass instantly.  
  
Chara’s smile never faded, and he still stood tall. “That doesn’t work here,” he said. “Never has. You’re on my playing field now.”  
  
Chara’s eyes opened _sideways_. “AND YOU WERE NEVER MEANT TO WIN.”  
  
“Frisk!” shouted Vista. “Do the True Reset!”  
  
“Are you— Are you sure! Vista, we can’t undo it!” Frisk’s eyes were wild with fear. Chara's face was melting, and he was approaching fast, too fast...  
  
“Just do it!” said Vista. “And Frisk, I  
  
  
  
  
  
Class ended in five minutes and all I could think was, _an hour is too long for lunch._


	7. ANOTHER END - UNLOCKED

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was unlocked via successful completion of the ARG. For more information, please continue on in the series.

—and as he watched the beam fly through the void, locking on to some faraway location in the nothingness, Bluejay remembered a conversation he’d had the night before with Toggle.  
  
_He had been working on the weapon. The frame of Mettaton EX, as Toggle had called it, was shockingly easy to work with. Everything was plug-and-play, even in its ruined state, and he was finding it extremely easy to work on. All he needed to do was to set up the power transistors to connect to Mettaton’s conversion output board, but his workflow was suddenly interrupted by Toggle walking into his lab._  
  
_“Hey, Bluejay, uh,” she had said. “Do you remember last year, how the PR guys wanted me to try and set up a Twitter account for ‘outreach’ purposes or whatever?_  
  
_“Yeah?” he had replied._  
  
_“Well, I got a few direct messages today that were pretty out of this world,” she said, half laughing, a nervous edge to her voice. It was probably the sleep deprivation, he thought. “Have you heard of something called the Anomalous Infrascanner?”_  
  
_“That sort of rings a bell,” he said. “It was what Hero was working on right before he died, right? Why?”_  
  
_“Take a look,” said Toggle, handing over the phone. “I got three direct messages about this thing, from someone by what I think is the cape name of Juff, someone who went by the username ccstat, and a mysterious person by the title of The Orchestral Inventor. They all sent over a copy of these blueprints, the ones that are open on the phone right now.”_  
  
_Bluejay had stopped listening. These plans, they changed... everything. A device that could lock on and open a gateway to anything, anywhere..._  
  
_“What does it do?” asked Toggle._  
  
_Bluejay looked up from the phone. “I know this will sound a little cliche, but the real question is what _doesn’t _it do.”_  
  
The beam of the infrascanner finally landed, exploding violently off in the distance behind Chara, and the rumble reached them a moment later. Chara put his hands on his ears, bending over slightly to keep his balance. Then he stood up and glared at the group.  
  
“You were supposed to aim at _me_,” he said, lips curled in a slight frown.  
  
“I missed,” said Bluejay, grinning.  
  
“Fine, whatever,” said Chara. “Be that way.”  
  
And then his eyes opened _sideways_.  
  
And at the same time, from the place in space where the beam of the Anomalous Infrascanner hit, a skeletal man stepped out. He wore a black lab coat, and had behind him what seemed to be the floating skull of an animal. Though he seemed to be far away from the group, the man did _something_ that made Vista's head spin, and then he took a single step, ending up next to Chara. Chara’s pupils briefly flicked towards the man, and that was all the time Gaster needed.  
  
He fired.  
  
Chara flew backwards, toppling over himself, launched into the ether.  
  
Doctor W.D. Gaster now turned to look at the group of heroes, and smiled sadly.  
  
He first began by saying something in a language that sounded like a jammed fax machine, but it quickly became quieter, as the mouth of the animal head moved in tandem with his.  
  
“_It is my apology,_” said Doctor Gaster, “_that it took me so long to be here with you. Had it not been for the successful creation and use of the Anomalous Infrascanner, I would certainly not be here today._”  
  
“The doorway worked?” asked Frisk.  
  
Gaster smiled down at her. “_It did,_” he said.  
  
“So that’s it?” asked Undyne. “You beat Chara? Just with one hit?”  
  
"_It took a lot more than just one attack for me to get here_," said Gaster. "_But once I did arrive, once the playing field became mine, one hit was all I needed._"  
  
"The playing field is yours?" asked Undyne. "All you had to do was show up, and suddenly you've got Shaker powers for days?"  
  
"_I don't make the rules_," said Gaster, apologetically.  
  
“I feel like I didn’t do a whole lot,” said Vista. “This whole thing is a bit of an anti-climax.”  
  
“_I’m sorry,_” said Gaster. “_I can bring him back._”  
  
“No!” shouted Vista. “No, thank you. Please don’t bring Chara back.”  
  
“_I was joking,_” said the Doctor, still smiling. “_I was known for my humor, back in the day._”  
  
“Sure,” said Vista, "I believe you."  
  
There was a beat of silence.  
  
"_You are the first living beings I have seen with my own two eyes in decades,_" said Gaster, eventually. Gaster's thumb and forefinger were rubbing together, as if he was confirming that yes, he was in fact in possession of a physical body.  
  
"I'm honored, Doctor, that we could help you in this way," said Frisk, "but could we—"  
  
"_Ah,_" said the Doctor. "_You are the one who I sent to Earth Bet. I knew it was a good idea._"  
  
"Yep. That's me," said Toggle. She sighed. "I'm Frisk. Er, Doctor Gaster, if it isn't too much trouble, what happened to the people who Chara disappeared?"  
  
"_You would like the people, Taylor Hebert and Theo Anders, returned to you?_" said Gaster. "_What of the villains, like Jack Slash, and the one known as Scion?_"  
  
"Jack Slash had a kill order," said Undyne. "Chara can have him for all I care. But we're going to ask for the return of our Wards and Scion."  
  
"_Are you sure about Scion,_" asked Gaster, his smile not faltering, but some humor leaving his face nonetheless. "_Are you sure you want to bring him back._"  
  
"Why wouldn't we want the greatest hero in the world back?" asked Vista.  
  
"_It is your decision,_" said Gaster, shrugging. He began to turn. "_I must go now. I have unfinished business in the Underground. The Barrier must go._"  
  
"Wait!" shouted Frisk. "You told me once this was all over, it would be possible to go back to my original world, that you'd free the human SOULs. Is that off the table?"  
  
"_It is not_," said Gaster. "_Contact me once you want any of those things. You know how._"  
  
And Gaster disappeared, taking the infinite blackness with him, and where he had been just moments before now stood Weaver, Golem, and Scion.


End file.
